Days more solid surf to come

Steve Shearer picture
Steve Shearer (freeride76)

Central QLD Forecaster Notes by Steve Shearer (updated on Fri 8th Mar)

This weekend and next week (Mar8-Mar15)

Central QLD: Days more solid surf to come

Lots more to come

We’re now entrenched in a classic late Summer pattern with strong high pressure moving into the Tasman, setting up a downstream blocking pattern and very healthy tradewind fetch through the Coral Sea, extending E into the South Pacific and south into the Northern Tasman.

That’ll see a typical wind pattern with SE-E/SE winds in the sub-tropics over the weekend and into next week.

Chunky tradewind fetch across most of the Coral Sea

We’ve still got our  late Summer pattern next week with high pressure straddling New Zealand, a monsoon trough strung across Northern Australia extending into the South Pacific and a long, broad tradewind fetch between the two broadscale atmospheric features. 

That lends  high confidence we’ll see solid E’ly swells this weekend to 3-4ft and all of next week, under constant SE winds which may start to ease off the second half of the week

Models are showing another kick in size Wed/Thurs by a notch related to an increase in windspeeds around a broad low pressure area near New Caledonia but models seem a bit divergent so lets flag it for now and see how it looks Mon.

We should see E’ly swell fluctuate but generally ease a notch through the Fri of next week as the blocking pattern breaks down. An expected low pressure centre near New Caledonia now looks to drift away to the SE (instead of retrograding back into the Coral Sea)- that should see a slow easing in size from that source into and over next weekend.

We may see a tropical low off the QLD coast later next week. It’s possible we may see something juicy spin up next weekend so tune in for details on Mon.

Seeya then and have a great weekend!